LEAH GARCHIK

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, October 26, 2006

One thing sticking in a few San Franciscans' craws this week: Why is it not OK for BNE stickers, whatever they mean, to be plastered all over town -- Mayor Gavin Newsom has offered a $2,500 reward to anyone helping to find the sticker of stickers -- but OK for Oracle to put stickers on Montgomery Street sidewalks? "Stickering is another form of tag vandalism," said a Police Department report in the summer. "This type of vandalism is popular in San Francisco. By creating a sticker with a tag, it allows the vandal to damage property that might otherwise be difficult to write on." Oracle, were you listening?

In San Francisco last week,
Bob Brown
,
Green Party
member of the
Australian Senate
, was honored by the
Rainforest Action Network
for a decadeslong war against loggers threatening the forests of Tasmania, his district. Brown, 61, received a Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990. Additional political interests include gun control, no nukes, Freedom of Information, Death With Dignity and gay rights.

At lunch at Zuni, hosted by Ken Maley, Brown described coming out as a gay man in the mid-'70s, while he was still practicing family medicine. He went from house to house to say: "G'day. I just have to tell you I am a homosexual," because that news was about to be revealed in an Australian newspaper. James Cassiol, Newsom's liaison to the LGBT community was at the lunch, too, and the talk turned to same-sex marriage. Brown has been with a partner for 11 years and wears a wedding-style ring but is unmarried. Cassiol mentioned that state officials want the city of San Francisco to stamp the word "Void" on 4,000 licenses on file in City Hall, because the state court says that same-sex marriages are illegal. So far, however, the city hasn't complied. The licenses -- unmarred -- are in a vault in Assessor Phil Ting's office.

After lunch, Brown took a look at the new Patricia's Green in Hayes Valley minipark, and the path of the old elevated freeway that once marred the neighborhood. We'd voted on the issue numerous times before the elevated freeway extension was razed, he was told. The same battle is being fought in Brisbane, he said, and he wished he had his camera to show fellow senators the San Francisco solution. Environmental hero Bob Brown seemed like a guy who could get elected here.

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Paul
Pelosi
said Sunday on "60 Minutes" that he picks out clothes for his wife, House Minority Leader Nancy, who "hates to shop." Since she has been named several times as Roll Call's best-dressed member of Congress, it's about time her husband got credit for the honor.
News flashes:

-- Near Third and Folsom, when Sandy Popovich-Pollack saw thieves break a car window to try to steal what was inside, she pulled out her cell phone, pointed and snapped. The thieves ran off, empty-handed. When Popovich-Pollack looked at the shots she had taken -- in hopes they'd be useful for cops chasing robbers -- she discovered she'd been holding the phone backward, thereby taking pictures of herself. No matter; she scared off the thieves and she still qualifies as a crime fighter.

-- A Careful Reader of the News (CRN from here on) forwards a New York Times obit for "internationally renowned linguist" William Bright, who studied disappearing indigenous languages. The obit describes his work on American Indian languages of California, especially Karuk, and notes that in appreciation of his scholarship, he was made an honorary member of the Karuk tribe. The obituary goes on to describe many achievements, finishing by noting: "The professor was also a meticulous reader of all his daughter's manuscripts." His writer-daughter is sex authority Susie Bright of Santa Cruz.

-- Although the Metro theater is gone, the Cerrito Theater on San Pablo in El Cerrito -- an Art Deco structure that has been a furniture warehouse for 40 years -- reopens Wednesday. Emily Duffy says credit goes to Dave Weinstein, who encouraged the city of El Cerrito to buy it. The marquee was relit in formal ceremonies Monday night.

Having taken a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Sacramento one recent late afternoon,
Dave Sauve
heaps praise upon the flight attendant who joked about dimming the lights "to enhance the physical appearance of your flight attendants"; told a little girl that one of the pilots was a woman, which was a career possibility for the little girl; and announced that one passenger, a National Guardsman, was returning from Iraq after 10 months there, upon which the others "erupted into extended applause." Sauve said she made the flight "a joy," a rare word for modern travel.
Public eavesdropping